Nonmedical personnel requirements for a pediatric radiology department.

The primary goal of a successful pediatric radiology department is to arrive at the correct clinical diagnosis as soon as possible. This responsibility is shared by radiologists, technologists, nurses, secretaries and clerks. The goal of this study was to determine the optimum number and type of nonmedical staff required to correctly and efficiently perform these examinations. The secondary purpose of our study was to evaluate the effectiveness of technologists, nurses, secretaries and clerks regarding: 1) patient waiting time, 2) performance of multiple examinations, 3) actual time for completion of examination(s), and 4) time required for the radiology report to be in the patient's medical history. Our study analyzed the number and type of radiological examinations performed for a variety of patients (emergency room patients, outpatients and inpatients) examined in the Radiology Department of Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles, a 345 bed metropolitan pediatric teaching hospital. The results of these evaluations will be discussed in this paper. Our data suggests that the time spent by the technologists in psychological support of the parents and the patient is inversely proportional to the time required to complete the test. Based on our study and the conclusions it presented, significant changes were implemented in our pediatric radiology department; specifically, the number of clerical positions was reduced from three to one with the use of computer-assisted check-in and chart follow-up within the department. Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles is a 345-bed metropolitan pediatric teaching hospital affiliated with the USC School of Medicine.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)